Following the announcement on Tuesday (February 10) that Spain had withdrawn from the competition in Leuven, both teams automatically qualified from the group and advanced to the quarter-finals.

Defending champions Germany were widely expected to assume a seeded position in the last eight, despite the absence of their star player Marc Zwiebler, but the Scots had other ideas and managed to pull off a dramatic 3-2 victory.

Kirsty Gilmour got them off to the perfect start with a 21-15, 21-15 win against Karin Schnaase in the women's singles, before Kieran Merrilees won the final five points in the decisive third game against Dieter Domke to claim a 23-21, 13-21, 22-20 triumph. 

The Germans showed great resilience however, and found themselves back on level terms after Carla Nelte and Johanna Goliszewski beat Imogen Bankier and Gilmour in the women's doubles, and Josche Zurwonne and Max Schwenger overcame Martin Campbell and Paul Van Rietvelde in the men's equivalent.

Scotland's Robert Blair and Bankier went into the pivotal mixed doubles encounter as underdogs against Michael Fuchs and Birgit Michels and it looked as though their country's hopes were slipping away when they lost the first game 21-12.

But not to be denied, they bounced back to win the second game by the same scoreline, before taking the third 21-18.

Denmark beat Poland and The Netherlands to top Group 1 ©Twitter



"It is matches like this that keep us involved in the game" said Bankier.

"We got off to a terrible start but we were determined to build on the great work of Kirsty and particularly Kieran.

"It's a great feeling to win and top the group as we are a small but very close team"

Scotland's win sets up a quarter-final tie against Russia, who lost 3-2 to France in Group 4 after beating Sweden 3-2 on Wednesday (February 11), while Germany meet France.

In Group 2, England cruised to 5-0 victories against Ireland and Belgium to move into the last eight where they will go up against The Netherlands'.

Despite registering a 5-0 win against Poland yesterday, the Dutch faced a much sterner test in their second Group 1 match with top seeds and tournament favourites Denmark the opposition.

The Danes replicated The Netherlands' 5-0 demolition of Poland in the morning session to set up a straight shootout for top spot and despite surrendering a 2-0 lead, normal service was resumed in the mixed doubles as Joachim Fischer Nielsen and Christinna Pedersen beat the Dutch pairing of Jorrit De Ruiter and Samantha Barning 21-10, 21-14 to ensure a 3-2 win. 

Next up for Denmark is Ireland, who are appearing in the quarter-finals for the first time in their history by virtue of their opening day victory against hosts Belgium.

All four quarter-final matches are scheduled to take place tomorrow across two sessions. 

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